By Kuni Tyessi
The federal government has revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic is responsible for the delay in the award of overseas scholarship to candidates under the 2020 Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA).
The Federal Ministry of Education made this known in Abuja on Wednesday while reacting to a purported list of scholarship awardees circulating on social media platforms.
A statement signed by the Ministry’s Director of Press, Mr Ben Goong, dismissed the list as fake, saying it did not emanate from the government.
While assuring candidates that the list of successful applicants would be uploaded on the Ministry’s website, Goong described the fake list being paraded on social media under the title ‘Justice To One Is Justice To All’ as mere mischief.
The statement read: “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Education has been drawn to a fake list circulating on social media platforms under the above caption and to the effect that the Federal Ministry of Education has approved scholarship awards to the listed candidates under the 2020 Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA).
“The Ministry wishes to state that the list which has been partly extracted and manipulated from applications received by the Ministry only for awards obtainable for Russia, did not emanate from the Ministry and is purely the handiwork of mischief makers.
“The authentic list of all the scholarship awardees from 2009 to date is available on the Ministry’s website; www.education.gov.ng for members of the public to access.
“The conclusion of the 2020 awards has been delayed due to the impact of Covid-19 and will be uploaded on the Ministry’s website as soon as the exercise is concluded.
“The general public is hereby advised to disregard the fake list being circulated to embarrass the Ministry or with the intent to dupe unsuspecting candidates.
“I am to add that candidates will be contacted directly by the Federal Scholarship Board and the awarding/host countries on their selection.”
